A VERY PLUGGED - IN PLACE
DHMC has once again been deemed a paradise for technophiles— it was ranked as one of the nation's "100 Most Wired" hospitals for the fourth year in a row by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. The publication's July 2003 issue also recognized DHMC in its "25 Most Wireless" category.
The magazine surveys the nation's hospitals annually on their use of information technology to handle processes ranging from safety to workforce management. This year more than 400 organizations, representing 1,128 hospitals, completed the survey.
Dartmouth's cyber-savviness also brought some notoriety as well as note. The Centers for Disease Control released a report in June suggesting that a campus pink-eye epidemic last winter could have been spread via computer keyboards. Dartmouth students are so attuned to checking their e-mail that they log on regularly in public clusters situated all over campus. Noted the New York Times of the outbreak: "A possible culprit may have been the public terminals, touched by hundreds of unwashed fingers each day. 'It brought up the whole question of whether computer keyboards could be a vector for disease,' said Dr. John Turco, the director of Dartmouth's health services. He said the school was considering putting antibacterial hand gel next to each terminal."
A.S.
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